Yesterday my heart beat faster, I was writing a number for every day in ascending order on the desk calendar from the October 27th Austin 70.3 Ironman to now. This is work! My thoughts are all about it. Run 13.1 miles, bike 56 miles, swim 1.2 miles, nutrition, and hydration. Bigger thought, Tuesday is a holiday in Texas for LBJ's birthday. Good time to do a brick workout.
A brick workout consists of combining at least two events. In this case the two will be swimming and running. Previously I have done swimming and biking or biking and running. (Swimming should always be first in the combination of events because the athlete is fresh and not as likely to get cramps or drown from exhaustion.)
My problem lately is that I have been running out of energy during the brick workouts, particularly the bike / run combination. Eating and drinking is a big problem. Simply put, during the next 60 days I have to practice the correct way to eat and drink before, during, and after my training or I will continue to bonk.
Big breakfast on Saturday morning before a six mile group run chased down with a PBJ sandwich, followed by a planned 55 mile ride. Ooops, not enough water for entire ride. I only had two 20oz bottles of water and a salt tablet which is only enough to complete half the distance, particularly on a hot day. Great news, I did not bonk. Bad news, I needed more hydration along with sodium and magnesium supplements because my calves later in the day looked like they had snakes crawling around inside of them.
Today, I woke up to a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, a 1.4 mile swim, a PowerBar after the swim, and a 12 mile run. Midway during the run I had another PowerBar followed by Honey Stinger Chocolate carb gel 3/4 into the run. No bonks and no snake crawling calf muscles today. Hydration is still an issue. I consumed 80 oz (26 oz per hour) of water during the training and I still had a net weight loss of 4.8 pounds. On average a person needs 32oz of water each hour during training. Based on my numbers, I need at least 40 oz for each hour. Sixty days to go.
I feel fabulous and I am challenged.
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